What You Have to Do
by my-grey-soul
Summary: Annabeth refuses to wait 6 more months to get Pery back, instead she sneaks out of camp with Thalia and travels to San Francisco. What if they get captured by Romans? Will they ruin the hope of peace between the two camps? NOT A ONESHOT-ACTUAL STORY IF I GET REVIEWS!
1. Chapter 1 Determined

"_**Exactly, Jason agreed. Percy Jackson is at the other camp, and he probably doesn't even remember who he is." -TLH**_

It was far past midnight and Camp Half-Blood stood in silence except for the snores of its campers, the occasional cries from the pegasi, and the echoing bang as a daughter of Athena stubbed her toe against a pot.

After quietly scolding herself and muttering a series of colorful curse words in Greek, the girl picked up the pot. Then placed it back on the table where it should have been if it weren't for the Stoll brothers.

Apparently with the entire camp in a less then cheerful mood the Stolls had made it their personal duty to change that. And in their mind their way of doing so was to rig a small explosive resulting in the camp's kitchen to be splattered with melted marshmallow. However, they hadn't calculated the bomb's impact very accurately and in the event kitchen supplies had been blown out of the building and were now scattered around the area.

After fellow head campers had succeeded in tracking down the Stolls and cornering them, (specifically Katie from the Demeter cabin who always had a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and was at the time covered head to toe in marshmallow gooeyness) the Stolls gave their signature claim of "we have no idea what you're talking about." But aside from the completely idiotic act itself, she had to agree, the camp really needed a pick-me-up.

"_Everything will be fine. We know where he is and we will get him back," Piper said earlier that day._

But things were nowhere near _fine_. Annabeth had thought that after days of no such sign from Percy, the knowledge of his location would, at the very least, be a major breakthrough in the search and bring her some form of closure. NO—couldn't have been farther off in fact, and as a daughter of Athena she did not enjoy being wrong.

Just the thought of Percy's fate being put in the hands of _Romans_ did not sit well with her. She, of course, knew that Percy could take care of himself—he was _invulnerable_ for Gods sakes—but she hadn't nicknamed him 'Seaweed Brain' for just any reason. Plus the fact that he would have to prove himself to those people without any of his memories just made it worse.

What if he doesn't pass? What if they find him so damn _irritating_ they want to kill him? (She knew that she had thought about it constantly and he was her _boyfriend_)

"_We at least know for a fact that he's alive," her half-brother Malcolm told her in attempt to soothe her as she rambled on the exact same thoughts to her siblings._

But that wasn't the worse scenario that had entered her mind, she knew it was selfish but if it turned out true she knew she would break down and possibly go insane (not that she wasn't sure she was already). Just the thought that he might possibly get another girlfriend in the near future made her not only sick, but furious.

This fury was proved because whenever she began thinking about this outcome she found that her feet had a mind of their own and would inevitably lead her to the training area. And it always took several stuffed dummies to be slashed to shreds and the defeat of a few living opponents to blow off steam.

As she neared the site where they were constructing the Argo II, Annabeth took in the scene in front of her. It was now three weeks since they had made the discovery of Percy's location and started building the ship. You could just start to make out the shape and size of it even though it was still in the early stages of construction.

Leo had originally said it would take about six months till they would be able to set sail. Then, it changed to eight months after finding out that both the number of workers and their pace were lower that what he had hoped for.

Annabeth had to admit that when Leo had told her this she kind of overacted. By overacted that meant she had drawn her knife, ripped up another training dummy, and when she had turned to Leo (knife in hand) he had sprinted off shrieking to passerby, "SHE'S GOING TO KILL ME! PLEEEEEEASE HELP! I'M TOO HANDSOME TO DIE!"

After cooling off she had asked Leo in the head counselor's meeting, "What's it going to take to get the ship done by the summer solstice?"

"_I told you Annabeth we'll never make it with the pace we're going at." Then he immediately added, "Remember don't shoot the messenger! It's not my fault, if I die every girl in this camp will cry for months over my death, I'm still so young and—"_

"_Leo, what if I could get you more workers?"_

"_I told you the original deadline is impossible, we would have to almost double our workers."_

"_What if we could?"_

_Pollux spoke up, "You're saying that you can double the amount of workers that we have? You do understand that's the same as doubling the population of almost the entire camp?" he said it with clear doubt which irritated her. Not to mention the fact that at the time the rest of the head counselors were looking at me sympathetically like they thought I was grasping at strings._

"_Girl, you're a Hades of a leader and the best braniac we got here. I mean sometimes you do get a little psycho, you know? When you want to kill someone, you kinda get this sorta mad glint in your—" Leo rambled._

"_What Leo was trying to say is we can't do that, you know we can't. But everything will still turn out fine, this is just a minor setback." Piper said softly, but I could hear the charmspeak in her voice._

_They pitied me and I hated it, to prove my point I took out a picture from my pocket and held it up for everyone to see. It was a picture from last summer taken right after the war. In the picture I stood in the middle arm in arm with Percy, to my right was Thalia, then Nico. Next to Percy was Grover, then Tyson. We were all in mid laugh; together the six of us had acted as generals leading the war against Kronos. _

_Everyone around the table had leaned in to take a closer look at the picture._

"_We know you miss Percy, Annabeth but—" Jason tried to reason._

"_Not that!" I had taken a deep breath and continued, "When we fought Kronos we had allies fight with us and when Percy went missing we sent out different search groups. Percy and I led the camp," she pointed to the two of them in the picture, "Thalia led the Hunters of Artemis," pointed to Thalia, "Grover is a Lord of the Wild which means he led the nature spirits," pointed to Grover, "Tyson is a general of a Cyclops army," pointed to Tyson, "and last but not least Nico can get an entire army of the undead any time he wants," pointed to Nico._

_**(Not to mention the Party Ponies that were led by Chiron, but Annabeth figured that if they were involved in the construction it be much more counterproductive. Meaning they'd get so stoned and...Let's just say no one in their right mind should trust them with hammers and blowtorches.)**_

"_Wait—hold on a sec, you're actually serious? You could double the number of workers we have?" said Leo, a little flabbergasted._

"_Yes. We know where Percy is now so we don't have to use them as search teams anymore. Without Artemis being able to contact them the Hunters have gotten a little bored and they have about thirty members now. Tyson's army of Cyclops will be especially helpful seeing how their also master blacksmiths. The nature spirits and undead will help in any way they can." I tried to speak as confident as I could and secretly felt proud of the surprised looks I was getting from everybody._

"_And you're sure that all of these different groups will be willing to help in the construction?" said Jason._

"_Of course the six of us are like a family and Percy is part of that family, we'd all do anything to—"her throat had gotten caught at the moment and she took a second to pull herself together again, "they'll be more than willing."_

"_Six months, you got it," said Leo, grinning._

_They looked at her and nodded, but they were doing so with respect. At least I hadn't failed completely as their leader, I thought._

That head counselors meeting had taken place two weeks ago. By now Hunters, Cyclops, nature spirits, and yes, some of the undead had already settled in. The fact that they had doubled the amount of workers was evident in the work they had completed.

As she remembered the meeting she subconsciously took out the very same photo from her pocket. They were all so happy that day they defeated Kronos. She remembered them actually believing—including her, that they might finally once and for all get some peace. Now she realized just how stupid they had been, they were demigods for crying out loud! Not to mention that this was leading up to a war possibly even worse that Kronos, they were going up against Gaia this time. Did the same generation seriously have to fight in both the Second Titan War and the Second Giant War? Would we ever catch a break? Looking back at the laughing faces in the picture it also hurt to wonder—When was the last time she laughed? Oh yeah, _Percy._

She began walking done the row of cabins, still invisible under her Yankees cap. She had gotten use to taking middle of the night strolls around the camp, everyone suspected but didn't have the heart to go to Chiron, who would be forced to punish her.

She took a step into Cabin three and just stood there for a moment. The sight, smell, even the sounds there reminded her of Percy. His cloths thrown everywhere, the smell of the ocean, and the sound of the fountain in the middle of the cabin, souvenirs from past quests —all so Percy, pretty much every place in the camp had some kind of connection to him.

Annabeth changed into one of his shirts and inhaled, the sea, Percy always smelled like the sea, not the salty kind of smell that stings your nose, but the relaxing sea breeze.

She walked over to his bunk and stared at the mirage of pictures above it. Some were old, from when he was only twelve and then throughout the years he spent at camp. She always felt some sort of happiness when looking at that wall because out of all of his friends she was in more pictures that anyone else.

The one picture that was framed on the nightstand showed her and Percy fast asleep on the beach. They were only thirteen at the time so it was way before they started dating, but Percy still had one arm around her shoulders, the other rested under his head. While one of her arms supported her head the other was draped over her stomach. Both of them looking peaceful and even though they were sleeping you could see the slightest hint of a smile on their faces.

Annabeth remembered being surprised when she found the very same picture in Percy's pocket while they were on a date about a month back. It had been originally taken by the Stolls for the sole purpose of making fun of them. Annabeth had swiped away the picture easily from their grasp considering the tip of her blade was pointed directly to either of their throats. Afterwards Percy promptly dumped them into the lake—or more like they were pulled in by the lake itself.

She had always known that they had gotten the picture back but up until a month ago she never realized he had kept it. After finding it in his pocket she had teased him, however, she was secretly overjoyed at the fact that he had been so sweet to carry it around with him, now it was framed.

She curled up into his bunk and let the tears fall. His cabin and the beach was where she was reminded most of him and these were the only two places that she let herself fall apart completely.

It took all of her energy not to breakdown sobbing in front of others. Without Percy the camp had turned to her as the leader and refused to listen to her attempts of declining the position. As the leader it was her responsibility to remain strong or at the very least look it. But she had to admit it didn't come to her as a surprise that the other campers weren't buying her claims of 'I'm fine'.

"It's so sad to see her fall apart," senior campers would occasionally whisper as she passed by.

As for the new campers she would hear them mutter things along the lines of, "Does she ever smile?"

She knew that her act wasn't very convincing considering that she was barely eating, sleeping, or doing anything other than working for that matter. This was all very evident in her once startling gray eyes now bloodshot, now skinny figure, and complete disregard toward her appearance.

Some campers like Piper, Rachel, and her siblings would constantly have to remind her to do simple things like eat and drink, according to them she hadn't exactly been taking care of herself. That had been proved in the first few days of Percy's absence and that had caught the attention of Will Solace, head of the Apollo cabin.

After what to her felt like an interrogation it was revealed that she had been working on no sleep, very close to dehydration, and her food intake had equaled to about two measly crackers in the past three days. This of course just had to take place at the campfire where everyone of course heard, breaking any chances of her looking sane to any fellow campers.

The tears then turned into heartbroken sobs, she quickly shoved her face in a pillow, not wanting to wake others up.

Annabeth's POV

I woke up finding myself grasping Percy's pillow, now soaked with my tears. I scolded myself for breaking down. The camp suspected, just like they had with the nightly strolls that I slept in Percy's cabin. I never told anyone, never talked it, but they knew.

Every morning the Athena cabin would wake up to find one of their campers missing and later in the day they would find me working on the blueprints for the Argo with shadows underneath my eyes.

I got dressed fast, not really caring, and made my way over to the Athena cabin. They were just starting to get ready for breakfast.

When I opened the door the cabin immediately quieted down and all eyes were on me. They knew where I had been which I could tell in their pitying stares. But I was used to it, I hated it, but for the sake that I wouldn't go completely insane I chose to ignore it. I honesty could not care less anymore; the only thing that mattered now was getting Percy back.

They all began to file out to breakfast, but out of the corner of my eye I could see one figure linger in the doorway as I gathered up blueprints.

"Are you coming, Annabeth?" It was the voice of her half-brother Malcolm.

"No, I need to finish calculating the exact measurements for the control room and then start on the plans for the individual rooms and then—"

"You can work on that later, you need food to function. By the way, when was the last time you ate?"

"I um I think….." He had his eyebrows raised at me, looking at me worriedly.

"Did you eat yesterday?"

"No, but—"

"Then you're coming to breakfast, now, come on."

I glared at him. He flinched, but regained his composure to look firm. I've had this fight with him and others to. Last time it ended up with me being dragged to the tables, given a full plate, and forced to eat it all in one sitting.

I sighed, rolled my eyes, and walked out the door without another glace at Malcolm. I knew it was foolish to be mad at him; he was only trying to help of course. But it didn't stop me from getting irritated.

Everyone had already been seated, and again all eyes were on me. It was rare for me to attend breakfast nowadays or any meals for that matter. If I realized that I was starving myself I would simply take a small snack from the Aphrodite cabin who were handing them out to the workers of the Argo.

I took a small spoonful of eggs and half a piece of toast, sat down, and ate it all in under a minute. Got up and left with all eyes on my retreating back.

When I was out of everyone's line of vision I put my Yankees cap back on and walked into Percy's cabin. I kneeled down next to one of the bunks and pulled out a pile of blueprints. Everyone saw that I had been constantly working but they had no idea how far I had actually gotten. I knew if anyone actually saw how much I had done they would all raise their eyebrows at me and force me to get some rest, which I was in no mood to deal with.

I had actually already finished planned the basic layout and calculated all the measurements. It was still very basic but it would make Leo's job a whole lot easier. I tucked these plans into one of my bags except for one. Then, I headed off to the construction site. It was still deserted due to the fact that everyone was still at breakfast.

It wasn't unusual for me to be the first one there or the last to leave. The only person who spent nearly as many hours working on the ship was Leo. I picked up a hammer and set to work. Ten minutes later Leo appeared.

"Brainiac, you really need to take a break." His tone was disapproving.

"I'll take a break when we get Percy back," not even looking up from my work.

"Annabeth—"

He flinched under my glare and sighed, getting to work. Everyone knew that simply telling me to eat was pushing my tolerance, and knew better than to force me to do anything else.

After a while more workers began to file in, once and a while leaving for class when they needed to. It annoyed me that they still had classes going on when they could use that precious time to contribute to the Argo. I, for one, refused to attend any of my classes, which no one questioned, not even Chiron. They saw how determined I was and knew I would be willing to fight for the right to work. Not wanting to be ripped apart by my dagger, they let me be.

The horn was blown for lunch time and again the construction site started to get abandoned, except for me and a few people who called, "Annabeth?"

I shook my head, but didn't look up till everyone had left. I put my Yankees cap back on and swiftly walked over to the Athena cabin.

No one was there of course and without a second thought I began packing cloths and everything I might need into the bag with the blueprints. Then I heard people walking up the steps to the cabin, I froze. Two campers entered: Malcolm and Piper.

"What are we looking for again?" asked Malcolm.

"Leo needs the plans for the very last floor."

"What were his exact words?"

"He asked, 'Beauty Queen, can you go ask Annabeth for the blueprints of the bottom floor? Oh, and go get me a girlfriend while you're at it, a hot one at that, and not a female Cyclops like the last time."

"What did you say to that?" a hint of humor in his voice now.

"I used charmspeak to make him slap himself and then he whined for a while."

Malcolm chuckled and started to look through a pile of blueprints I had left on the drafting table. "It looks like Annabeth didn't really organize these blueprints, she has piles of them, some are for Olympus and some for the Argo."

"I'm also guessing that she hasn't been sleeping in her bunk?" Piper observed by the fact that my bunk was the only one that didn't look slept in.

"Yeah, I got curious one night and found her in Percy's bunk instead, she was crying," sounding sad.

"Oh Gods I feel sorry for her. She's so worried about Percy and she still has to lead the camp. It's like in her mind she thinks she doesn't have enough time to take care of herself."

"Yeah I know what you mean, everyone's worried about her, especially the senior campers who's known her for years."

"Um…What was she like, you know, when Percy was around? Did she laugh?"

"Oh yeah, when Percy was here she was genuinely happy, laughed all the time."

Piper looked thoughtful for a moment, it surprised Annabeth that Piper actually cared how she felt.

"Okay. Got the plans," Malcolm said holding up a long blue sheet with Annabeth recognized as the layout for the bottom floor.

"Good, Leo and everyone else is at lunch. We better eat too." Malcolm nodded and they left.

_So they and everyone else was worried about her_, Annabeth thought. Of course, she knew that they were all worried about her; it just really irritated her when she heard them _say_ they were worried. The only person who didn't irritate her when they got worried was Percy. When it came to Percy he knew that she could take care of herself, and it was just plain sweet knowing that he cared for her. _He would look so cute when he was worried; his eyebrows would_—stop it, I told myself. I could not break down now.

I double checked that I had everything packed cloths, medicine, money, weapons, etc. Then I shoved the bag under my bunk and went back to the Argo.

When I got back to the ship everyone was still at lunch, so I took off my cap and started working again, like I had been there the entire time. My mind began to wander and somehow I found myself thinking about the sickening scenario of _if Percy finds a new girlfriend…_

Four years it took her to get that brain-dead guy to open his eyes and _see_ her. With all that work she was not just going to let those four blissful months of dating die in vain. This was why she had to carry out her plan to get him back, with or without the help of anyone else.

The only reason that she hadn't left the second they discovered his location was because she knew that they needed her to help plan the Argo. Now that she had finished planning the basic layout, nothing was stopping her from getting him back. She knew that the earliest that she could leave would be tomorrow night and she wasn't going to delay it.

She would of course have to wait till everyone was asleep, then the only real obstacle would be whoever was on guard duty…

"Annabeth?"

The voice came from behind and startled me, it was Piper. As I was visualizing my plan I hadn't noticed that lunch had finish and workers had already poured in.

"Yeah," I was in no mood to deal with people who were worried about me.

"You didn't come to lunch today."

"Yeah," definitely worried, ugh.

"Remember what Will told you?"

Will had given me a whole _lecture_ on how I needed to pay more attention to my health. I, of course, had shrugged him off but other senior campers had noticed and backed him up. That angered me. They had told me that I needed sleep and food to function, blah blah blah. Then somehow that would help Percy, I honestly wasn't listening.

"Yeah, Yeah," trying me best to show Piper that she had no chance of convincing me of anything. When I stole a glance sideways, Piper had a sympathetic look on her face. I guess she had decided that I was a lost cause because she left, leaving me to analyze my escape plan.

When it was dinnertime I continued working after everyone had left. It wasn't till the campers had gathered around the campfire that I put my Yankees cap back on.

The Apollo campers were leading the sing along, everyone looked happy, but it wasn't the same. It wasn't just me that was hit by Percy's absence, but the entire camp was a little miserable. They all looked cheerful enough in the sing along, but if you looked at the fire itself, it wasn't that large or bright.

I put that thought aside as I spotted the Hunter. I snuck silently up to her and tapped her back. "Come with me," I whispered. Unfortunately, this made her jump and spill the glass of punch in her hands on a burly Ares boy in front of her.

"Hey! Who do you think—"the boy's eyes widened when he realized he was yelling at the lead Hunter herself, "um…never mind, sorry Thalia."

Apparently Thalia had succeeded in making even the Ares cabin a little frightened of her. Thalia nodded to the boy and walked off away from the campfire. When she reached a vacant field she spun around and whispered, "Annabeth?... Please take it off, I hate talking to nothing!"

Annabeth felt a little chuckle rise in her chest, it was humorous to watch the Hunter get frustrated when she wasn't aware of her surroundings. She took off the cap and forced a smile to her best friend—other than Percy of course.

"Hey, Thals."

"Hey, is everything okay?" She was obviously wondering why in the world I was using my Yankees cap to talk to her.

"Before I tell you, you have to swear on the River Stynx that you will not share this with anyone else. ..and I also just wanted to say that, well, you and Percy are my best friends and I can't thank—"

"Oh my Gods, Annabeth, you're scaring me, are you dying?!" She put the back of her hand on the girl's forehead, in attempt to take her temperature, but Annabeth quickly swiped it away.

"No!" she groaned and continued, "just please swear so I can tell you."

Thalia sighed. "Fine, I swear on the River Stynx that I will not divulge any information that is given to me in the next hour by you, Annabeth Chase, to any nosy souls, blah blah," thunder echoed in the distance, "BLAH!," glaring up at the sky, then looking back at Annabeth, "now spill."

"I'm leaving tomorrow night for the Roman camp to get Percy back." I felt so anxious revealing my plans for the first time that my words came out as a slur.

Thalia took a deep breath and gazed intently on the stars. After a few moments, Annabeth became impatient and waved her hand in front of the electric blues eyes—no reaction. "Earth to Thals…you okay? You're stiff enough to pass for one of Medusa's statues right now! _Please talk to me_."

Thalia took another deep breath and studied her, "I guess I always knew you weren't going to wait six more months to get him back."

"Wait…so you're not going to try and stop me?" I asked warily. I reminded myself of the fact that they were equally good fighters and if she did try to stop her there was no telling who would win that fight—_of course there's the fact she could strike me down with a lightning bolt,_ I shuddered.

"Look, Anna, I know it's pointless to try and stop you—Hell, I'm the one that taught you to never let anything stand in your way," she smirked, "and I know that you're really irritated at the fact that everyone thinks that your having a 'break down' right now, but just know that I'll be here to back up your decisions and kick the ass of anyone who thinks otherwise."

I smiled, _if it were anyone else I probably would be under house arrest in one of the rooms in the Big House right about now._ Thank the Gods for Thalia. (specifically Zeus)

"Now that that little sappy moment is finished, go on with what you were saying."

"Okay, well like I said you're my best friend and with getting Percy back, I kinda…well, um…" I was beginning to stutter.

"Wait, you didn't think I was going to let you go alone did you?" I looked at her sheepishly.

"Well, I'm coming with you one way or another. The Hunters should be fine without me for a while since they're staying here. Plus, I feel that it is my duty to humanity to give that Kelp Face a piece of my mind for getting himself kidnapped and us into this whole mess."

"That's not fair this is entirely Hera's fault, not Percy's." Anger began to bubble inside her as she thought of the Queen of the Gods.

"Oh don't you worry we'll take extra care in dealing with that—," thundered echoed louder this time, Thalia scowled at the night sky, "let's focus, do you have a plan?"

"Athena always has a plan."


	2. Chapter 2 The Great Escape

**I hope you like this chapter (I had so much fun writing it)—the beginning may seem a little slow, but I promise it gets a lot better. PLEASE REVIEW! **

**And like I said this'll be a real length story when I'm done so any tips or suggestions, FEEL FREE!**

Annabeth POV

It was now past the deadline for 'lights out' and at the moment all Thalia and I had to do was kill time.

"Are you sure the Hunters aren't suspicious about why you haven't gone back to the cabin yet?" I asked. Thalia had used my cap to enter, pack, and leave the Artemis cabin before the others had come back from the campfire.

"Stop straining that humungous mind of yours before it explodes. We've been over the plan and it'll work out on way or another. I told the Hunters that I was doing some work for Chiron and probably be away till late."

She was trying to reassure me, but nothing would have the power to calm me down right able now. If everything went according to plan I would be able to see my Seaweed Brain in a few days, but if we screwed up tonight we would not get a second chance, Chiron would make sure of it. If we screwed up, days would turn into months and the wait would be agony. The longing to see him right then and there was almost unbearable: his black disheveled hair that stupid crooked grin, and those brilliant sea green eyes that made you want to melt— what_ if he doesn't remember?_

I couldn't stand that thought and my ADHD wasn't helping it. I kept fidgeting and tapping my fingers till I realized Thalia had been starring at me, eyebrows raised.

"What's really nagging you, and don't give me that crap about 'what if something goes wrong', its Percy isn't it?"

I hesitated, "Do you think it's stupid of me to get my hopes up about Percy remembering me…and maybe things working out?"

Thalia smacked her on the arm, _OW!_, "Don't you start thinking like! You two love each other," I shook my head, "Don't even dare try to deny it! You two love each other and love isn't something you should give up on."

"Says the _Hunter_ who gave up on love! How would you know what it's like?"

At that, she fell silent and looked down at her feet as we continued through the woods. This brought up the question that always seemed to be somewhere in my mind, but I had never sucked up enough courage to ask, _until now_.

"Thalia…when," I took a deep to say the name, "Luke, you, and me were basically running around the country I was only seven and wouldn't really have noticed if…"

"You're wondering if there was something between me and Luke back then." I looked up at her and nodded, she looked as if her energy had been stolen from her.

"I honestly didn't know either, Annabeth, I mean we both kind of had _feelings_…But we were running around the country, fighting monster after monster, for some reason even though we faced death on a regular basis I guess we both thought we would have more time…"

We kept walking till we came to an opening between the trees, the view overlooking the beach.

"You know that's the reason why I hoped so badly that you and Percy would get together. I didn't want that to happen to you, overestimating the amount of time you guys have and then something happens…Like one of you turning into a tree (seaweed if it was Percy) or the other wanting to take over the world." I immediately fell guilty for talking to her about my problems when she already had a large enough burden to bear.

"Gods, Thalia, I'm so sorry I should have been a better friend, I should have been there for you—"

"Hey, what happened with Luke really messed up the both of us, but we'll always be there for each other and besides we both got to say good bye to him, we were able to get a little closure."

"When?"

"After the war, in the Underworld, I had Nico help me."

I could tell that we were both thinking about our good bye to Luke. I also knew that neither of us was going to talk about it, it hurt too much. We gazed out to the sea, there were tears falling down both our faces, but they were slow tears, not weepy.

Then they heard a twig snap in half behind them. "Annabeth?" "Thalia?"

Leo POV

"Be very, _very_ careful with that rope Leo," Travis whispered while I continued to pull the rope, "Slowly!"

"Guys I got this! Besides there's no way that the paint can spill while it's on the zip line, so relax."

The two of them shook their heads, "Oh Leo, sweet, ignorant Leo," said Conner, putting his arm on Leo's shoulders, "what you and Jason have yet to learn is that each prank is an individual masterpiece."

And Travis finished, "so each time you have to strive to make it the Mona Lisa," then Conner cut in, "the set up, the actual contraption or plan, the execution…they all hold their own _beauty_." Then they said simultaneously, "So what have you learned?"

"That the two of you are secretly fans of Leonardo Da Vinci, because you know I'm the Leo in Leonardo, so I get it if you guys want to start worshipping me like—" their expression hardened.

"This is no laughing matter!" Leo always thought that the Stolls weren't able to understand the concept of 'no laughing matter', let alone ever say it.

He tried again, "Um…I-I'm going to set that can of paint on _exactly_ the big red X, because we're making the Mona Lisa," they gestured for more, "and…and it's, um, pretty—," their eyes widened, "no, no it's beautiful!"

They smiled, satisfied at his answer, "You're going to do some good in this world someday, son," Conner patted him on the back and they left Leo to finish tying the rope himself. Jason entered the cabin and silently went up to him making sure not to wake any Ares campers around them.

"Ready?" I nodded, "Where are the Stolls?"

"Somewhere outside, but hey before this I never thought I'd be able to use the words 'passion' and 'Stoll brothers' in the same sentence, man was I wrong."

"Gods, I know, I started making fun of them when they gave me the exact measurements of how much knock-out spray to use to keep the Ares campers sleeping, something like you have to use one-eighth of the bottle but I only spray one-fourth of the one-eighth every 1 and a half minutes. Anyway it looked like they wanted to kill me for offending their 'carefully thought out mission for the justice of the God of Thieves and all those who steal to keep the world going round.'"

I snorted and suggested that we go find the 'junior Picassos'. They were huddling around three separate computer screens, when I saw them I realize they showed the inside of the Ares cabin from different angles.

"Everything's set, you?" I asked

"Yep, we got the cameras positioned so we can catch their reaction on tape." Conner replied, grinning like a child on Christmas morning. Then Travis added, "Teach them to call the Hermes cabin 'sniveling no-good thieves."

"Aren't you," Jason retorted.

"But we're not sniveling," Travis threw back, and then Conner, with his voice rising said, "or no-good!" The Stolls got up and headed toward the woods, Jason and I followed. Today they had been given the opportunity to be taken under the Stoll brother's wing and learn the basics of pulling a prank. I, of course, went right for it, but it had taken a while to convince Jason, but even an all-mighty disciplined Roman can't stand the temptation.

_Beauty Queen will probably smack me for it tomorrow,_ I thought, _or make me smack myself,_ and frowned, _I smack hard. _Then I thought about what the Ares campers would do, _they'd kill me, Clarisse would electrocute me with her spear—again, WHY didn't I think about this before?_

"Um, guys, what are we going to do when the Ares campers try to, you know, kill us?"

"Don't worry, your with us now, we've been through this millions of times and we're not dead, yet."

Then the Stolls started whispering between themselves, I caught one part, "they'll kill them, not us." Jason heard it to and I figured he would have the job of fighting them off while I would burst into flames and wet my pants at the same time. I was about to tell him when I noticed that the Stolls had come to a stop. Jason and I glanced at each other, his hand going toward the coin in his pocket, mine on my tool belt. We walked up to the Stolls to find them not staring at a monster but two people blocking the path, their backs facing us.

"Annabeth?" "Thalia?"

Everyone looked pretty surprised, but as for the four of us were weren't just surprised to find them, but a lot more weirded out to find them with _tears_ in their eyes. We all knew Annabeth cried for her boyfriend, but she was still the strong and determined camp leader who would never let anyone see her that 'broken'. As for Thalia he had no idea what the hell was going on, Annabeth was the one with the lost boyfriend and Thalia was the always cool and collected Hunter. They wiped their tears, but both looked pretty calm for someone who had been caught crying. He guessed that after a lifetime of constant surprises it took a lot to startle them nowadays.

"What are you guys doing awake, its past 'lights out'" Annabeth asked.

"No reason," Travis lied easily, clearly having done this before, Conner back him up saying, "Just the usual midnight stroll, what are _you_ guys doing up."

Both Annabeth's and Thalia's eyes narrowed dangerously, their eyes were no longer soft from the tears, now startlingly sharp grey and blue. Annabeth's looked as if they were x-raying us, while Thalia's swept from face to face, like they were expecting one of us to break. Thalia's gaze rested on Jason who was looking at her worriedly.

I didn't really get that, then I realized how much sense it made for him to be worried, considering she was his sister, _his hot sister. _Thalia is way out of my league and that is exactly why I'm in love with her. I basically flirt with any girl like that, well, except for Annabeth. I mean Annabeth is gorgeous, everyone knows that, and she can kill you just as easily as Thalia, which is another trait that I love. But even I know it would be wrong to hit on her while she's going through losing her boyfriend. This is why I will wait till she gets her boyfriend back and then I'll properly flirt with her like she deserves. I then wondered what her boyfriend, Percy Jackson, the savior of Olympus, would do to me for it. _Would he drown me? Beat me to a pulp?..._

Jason nudged me to bring me back to reality. Apparently, I had been starring at Thalia the entire time when that all ran through my head, I also had my mouth hanging wide open, little embarrassing. Thalia rolled her eyes at me, _she loves me back, _and announced, "Annabeth and I were just going to bed."

With that the two girls took off toward the cabins, while the Stolls went in the opposite direction.

"Wait, where are you guys going?" said Annabeth looking back at them.

"Conner and I have guard duty tonight, why do you care?" Travis replied pointedly. We knew that they were hiding something and they knew we were hiding something, was anybody going to speak up—NO.

No one said anything else after that, the girls took off in one direction, the Stolls in the other, and Jason left the way we had came, to his cabin. I took a while for me to realize that I was now alone, _wow, my brain really is slow. _Not really knowing what to do, I just peered over to the view of the beach, _nice view…maybe someday I could have a romantic dinner here with Thalia…_

Annabeth POV

Thalia groaned, "Leo annoys me so much, I swear if he wasn't Jason's friend I would have turned him to ash a long time ago, but you know what? Just because he's my brother's friend doesn't mean I can't pound the fact that I'm a Hunter into him."

"Good for you, but we need to focus, the Stolls just said that they have guard duty tonight. Since they upped security to six guards and considering that the Stolls had swords not bows just now, I'm guessing that the four other guards are archers. That also means that the Stolls probably have the job of signaling the alarm if anything goes wrong."

"Okay, so we have to knock the Stolls out first because they'll be the closest to the alarm, which you have to admit will be pretty fun, I can imagine their faces now…" she smirked.

I let myself smile at the thought, "Oh it will, but I need to do one last thing before we go, so while I do that how about you stake out the entrance and find out where the other guards are positioned."

"Sure," she slipped through the trees to the entrance and I made my way to the Hephaestus cabin. When I peeked into the window I was relieved to find the Leo was already there, getting into his bunk. I took out a notepad and pen from my bag, wrote:

Use these to finish the Argo II. Tell Chiron that I'm sorry and make sure that the Hunters know that Thalia wants them to remain at camp till further notice. Malcolm is my second in command and he can take my place till we return with Percy. Don't change any of the camp's plans for peace with the Romans because of this.

-Annabeth

I waited 10 more minutes till I heard him snoring and was sure that he was asleep. I put on my Yankees cap and took out the blueprints from my bag and set it next to Leo's bed with the note on top.

"Clarisse—No! No!...," he muttered in his sleep, I froze, worried that I'd wake him or the other campers in the room at the slightest sound, "Please…don't kill…too young—too handsome," he was shaking his head violently now, but then he stopped and started to smile, "Thalia…" then he took his pillow in his arms and began to kiss it passionately.

I tip-toed out of the cabin before I burst out laughing, _if we could see his dreams…_

When I reached the entrance to the camp I found Thalia hidden behind some bushes and joined her. I took the cap off, she looked up at me, and slipped something into my hand. We were hidden in shadows so I couldn't tell exactly what it was in the dark, but I felt it. There were four separate pieces one was a long hollowed out cylinder, then three sharp darts?

"Careful not to prick yourself or you'll fall asleep instantly."

"We're using blow darts to knock them out?"

"Yep, I know we planned on using spray, but then you'd have to be close enough to them to do it and they're so spread out that they'd notice before we were done. And don't worry, the darts are non-lethal, I think."

"Thalia!" I hissed.

"Kidding! No one is going to die tonight. Okay? Here are their positions, you were right the Stoll brothers are standing next to the alarm over there," she pointed to two figures leaning against a tree in the distance. Then she continued pointing out the four others who sat in the trees above us, forming half a circle around the entrance. The closest guard was about thirty feet away from us. Each of the four were approximately twenty feet in the air with their bows at the ready, while the Stolls had their swords, not that they would have a chance to use them, of course.

They also had to keep Peleus, the dragon-guard in mind, but they had already come to the conclusion that he wouldn't notice what was going on till they had officially crossed the border.

I figured that the best way to start the attack would be to knock out the Stolls first, _then_ that would be Thalia's cue to take out the rest. It worried me that Thalia would have to take all four archers out herself, but it was truly the only way. As she had been staking out the entrance she found that there wasn't a single good angle to Stolls if you tried from the trees. That meant that one of us had to be situated on the ground, but from ground level it would be too hard to hit any of the archers.

I was a decent climber but since Thalia was the Hunter she had more experience attacking at that height. Since she had the bigger job to do I gave her my cap, hoping it would give her some leverage, and we set to work.

She climbed the one tree that we found had a clear angle on all four, located right in the middle of the half-circle. We agreed that I would wait at least five minutes before I started, giving her plenty of time to climb the tree and find the four angles that she would use.

Without my cap I was perfectly visible. I kneeled down behind a bush about 15 feet away from the Stolls, their backs toward me. They were only 10 feet away from the switch that sounded alarm, once the dart punctured their skin their first instinct would be to go for it. I hoped that the liquid laxative in the darts took effect before they would be able to reach it, if not I would be forced to interfere and become a clear target to the archers above. But I couldn't pray, I couldn't imagine any of the Gods siding with us, including my mother, Zeus, or Poseidon, they would want us to wait to formally meet the Romans as a group, not risk the chance of another Civil War. (Not to mention the fact that Zeus was prohibiting the god's interference with demigods)

Five minutes…Four…Three…Two…One—time. I slowly raised my head above the bush, put the cylinder to my lips, aimed, and blew. Conner grunted, I reloaded, he fell, Travis turned towards me, one archer fell towards the ground, I blew, and Travis grunted. Another archer fell, then another, then…_where was the other archer? _

I looked at the tree that should have held the fourth archer—it was empty. My eyes ran down the trunk of the tree, I spotted someone scurrying down, when he was about halfway he jumped and sprinted toward the alarm.

Thalia didn't have an angle and neither did I, taking a dart in my hand, I tackled him.

I pinned him to the floor and noticed that a spear had flown from his hand, _he wasn't an archer after all_. Whoever he was he was strong and wearing full body armor, making it hard to find a place to jab the dart in. Before I could, he flung me from his back.

I got up, kicked the spear behind me, and turned to face my opponent, dagger in hand.

"Get off punk!"

My eyes widened at the voice. _He was no archer, he used a spear, he was not a he, someone who likes calling people punk?—_Clarisse.

When I tackled her, her helmet must have gotten crooked because she was now fumbling with it and hadn't seen me yet. She _was_, however, cursing me in Greek and challenging me to a fight even though she was weaponless. _Well you have to commend her for her bravery at the very least._

Thalia had now joined me with her bow and arrow at the ready. (Being a hunter her bow and arrow appear whenever she needs it) I positioned myself between Clarisse and the alarm while Thalia blocked the path heading back to camp—she was cornered.

When she was done fixing her helmet she raised her fists at me and looked me squarely in the face. Her eyes widened when she realized it was me, but her fists didn't lower. If I had to fight her to get Percy back that was just something I have to do. _Although I would feel guilty, she had started to actually stand up for me since Percy had gone. Definitely acted a lot nicer towards me..told me I reminded her of Silena…_ Something I have to do.

"Annabeth?" she threw a glance at Thalia, "Thalia?"

"Clarisse, your weaponless, _please_ don't try to fight us," I tried to reason.

"You guys are going to get Prissy back, aren't you?" Thalia and I looked at each other.

"Yeah," I replied, it was pointless to lie, they'd all know in the morning.

After a few moments Clarisse lowered her fists and said, "Go Ahead," _The daughter of Ares—surrendering?_ My eyebrows furrowed, she continued, "_Go_, hand me one of those darts so no one knows I let you out," nothing happened. "This is no time for questions Chase! Want to get your boyfriend back, or not?"

Thalia handed her a dart, "Thanks," I said, still not really understanding what just happened.

"Don't thank me. If anyone finds out about this, you're dead. Now go get Prissy back because it's no fun teasing people when there isn't anyone to stand up for them." With that she pushed the dart into her arm and fell back.

Thalia and I remained standing with our weapons raised, surveying the area for any last minute surprises or complications. The camp remained silent—they hadn't woken anyone up and now all six guards were fast asleep.

I stifled a laugh when I saw the Stoll brothers, a dart stuck out of Conner's upper back and he was laying face down on the ground, but his head itself was turned to the side. His arms and legs were sprawled out around him, like you would when trying to make a snow angel, and his mouth was in a perfect 'O'. As for Travis, instead of the ground he had fallen face up on Conner 's back. A dart pointing out of his chest and his face turned to the side, drooling on his brother's shirt.

I thought back to all the embarrassing times that they had found me with Percy and had taken pictures or 'photographic evidence' to use to make fun of us later. Not being able to resist the urge, I got out my phone and took a quick picture.

Thalia chuckled when she saw what I was doing. I put the phone away and we took one last glance around.

"That went well," she stated. I wasn't able to tell if she was being sarcastic or she genuinely thought that we did good. _Focus…_

"We're not out yet, there are still a lot of things that could go wrong," I reminded her and she nodded.

We jogged past the Big House and cabins till we came to a stop at the camp's 'garage', which held one van. Using pegasi would have been our first choice to get to the airport but with the construction of the Argo II, they were constantly using them to retrieve more materials. Not wanting to deprive the camp of that resource, our only other option was to use the camp's van, which was barely in use.

The problem with the van was that it was LOUD and considering that fact that we would have to drive past all of the cabins, including the Big House in the middle of the night. This meant that we were about to wake up the entire camp in our efforts to leave.

I sat in the passenger seat while Thalia took the wheel. We both started taking a few deep breaths at what we were about to do. The guards were knocked out, our packed bags sat in the backseat, and the only this left to do was leave. Our plan: drive as fast as humanly possible so we don't give anyone time to set up defenses or roadblocks.

We locked eyes with each other for a second and then put the key in the ignition, it was LOUD. She slammed her foot down on the pedal and I was thrown back in my seat as we took off. Even when we were still approaching the line of cabins, we saw lights turning on and campers waking up.

People began running out of their cabins to see what was going on. When we were halfway to the entrance I looked back and saw campers practically _pouring_ out of the cabins we had passed.

Thalia was now constantly swerving to refrain from killing someone. CRASH. _BOOM!_

They ran into the wooden picket fence in front of the Demeter cabin and straight through their front yard garden. When I looked back I saw Demeter kids screaming over the squished plants. _That was going to be hard to apologize for when they got back…_

"Hey Thals, did you ever get a driver's license?" I asked, her driving was really starting to scare me now.

"Nope."

"That explains so much."

We passed the Big House, in the doorway stood Chiron with an impassive expression. "Sorry Chiron," I whispered under my breath. Then up the hill, past the six snoring guards, the border line, Peleus, and made a sharp turn onto the road.

A few moments later I leaned back into my seat and we began to relax. Both of us were smiling to ourselves. IT WORKED!

We were still going quite fast, afraid that some campers might have gone on pegasi to stop us. Then something began to glow in the rearview mirror. I squinted and noticed it was getting bigger and bigger. I looked back…_Oh Gods._

I turned the steering wheel and swerved us off the road. Just in time to doge the gigantic fireball that flew straight past us. "Annabeth take the wheel, I'll take care of it." I nodded and we switched seats.

I put us back on the road but began driving zig- zag so we wouldn't appear clear targets.

"What is it?" I asked, not really knowing if I wanted to hear her answer.

"Peleus,"

"That doesn't make sense! He's chained to a tree, he couldn't have gotten this far."

"Oh he's chained to a tree alright—he's kind of dragging it along with him."

Thalia had her bow in her hand and was notching an arrow.

"Thalia if you kill him, Chiron kills us!"

"Well do you have any better ideas because we can't drive the entire way to JFK with a dragon on our tail, especially one that's trying to kill _us_."

My mind scanned through the different materials we had brought. Two more fireballs sped past us.

"The darts we used on the guards!"

"They're way too small for a dragon; he probably wouldn't feel a thing."

"No, Thals, they have liquid laxatives in them. Break some open and pour the liquid onto the tip of the arrow. Then aim for one of his legs or something like that, just be sure that the arrow won't be able to kill him."

Thalia broke open the darts, spilled the liquid onto the bow tip, and opened the sunroof of the van. One minute later, Peleus was taking a little nap on the road. Thalia leaned back in her seat and I stopped zig- zagging.

"I can drive till we get to JFK, you're probably tired by now." Thalia offered.

"Are you kidding? You just _admitted_ you didn't have a real driver's license."

Thalia pouted.

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	3. Chapter 3 Stowaways

**I edited my first and second chapters because I realized all of the mistakes I made with the POVs—thanks to ****.90**,** who pointed that out. (I kept switching from first person to third person.)**

**I **_**LOVE**_** REVIEWS BY THE WAY! (They ****fuel**** this story—hint, hint ****)**

_**Annabeth's POV**_

Less than fifteen minutes later, we had another problem.

A stampede of cows had fled from a nearby field and was now grazing on the road, blocking our path.

"_Hera_," Thalia spoke the name with distaste, "Does she honestly think that using her damn cows as roadblocks will make us want to turn back?"

"No, it's more her way of saying she doesn't approve of what we're doing." _As if we could care less, _"If she had it her way she'd probably blast us right now, but since you're here Zeus will want to refrain from having his only daughter (as far as we know) killed, _again._"

"Well if I could I'd blast her too," she said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "and if I did it, it wouldn't be murder—it would be doing a world a favor for not having to put up with her crap and—" thunder boomed and Thalia glared at the sky, muttering curses under her breath, which only made the thunder echo louder.

"Like you said, when this is over we'll find some way to make her pay, but for now let's try to avoid giving the other gods reason to go against us," _Hell knows we can't afford another immortal to go on the 'enemy' list._

We sat in silence for another five minutes wondering if the herd would disperse any time soon. I was about to resort to honking our way through when a bolt of lightning suddenly struck one of the nearby cows. It slumped forward, whether it was unconscious or dead I wasn't certain.

"Did you have to do that?" I asked, feeling a little pity. That cow wasn't a monster but a living creature that had been under Hera's spell.

"Look, if we can't kill Hera then killing her minions are the next best thing," She shrugged.

I rolled my eyes jokingly. I don't know why or how, but I guess the idea that we were really going to get Percy back gave me the will to allow humor back in my life.

"How about we set up camp in the woods of the road, I don't see these guys moving anytime soon and the flight isn't till two o'clock tomorrow. It won't put us off schedule and I think it's better than having to sleep in the airport like we planned."

Thalia agreed and we found small patch of ground large enough for our tent in the woods. Almost immediately we were in our sleeping bags and Thalia had drifted off to sleep. We should have been taking turns keeping watch but there was so little of the night left and we were too exhausted. Besides it didn't make much of a difference considering I couldn't fall asleep at the moment, no matter how tired I was. I kept thinking about those days leading up to his disappearance…

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_**Flashback **_

"So when's Percy coming to camp?" asked Thalia as we climbed up half- blood hill to camp.

I smiled to myself at the thought of seeing Percy again. I was currently attending a boarding school in New York to work on the construction of Olympus. (Also to stay close to Percy but I would never admit it to him—his ego was big enough already) Unfortunately, the school was strict with curfew and with planning the reconstruction we had only been able to fit a few dates in the past few months. And although we constantly IM ed each other, I hadn't seen him since Thanksgiving last month. We had spent the day with his mom and stepdad, he had gotten his hand stuck in the turkey and…

I realized Thalia was smirking at me with her eyebrows raised. I blushed which only succeeded in enhancing the smirk to a full grin.

"He's coming tomorrow afternoon."

"Mmmmmm, just warn me before you start making out with him, okay? I can't take any of that lovey dovey stuff you two have right now. Remember last time I walked in and you guys were—"

"Shut up."

She chuckled and we walked through the entrance of camp Half- Blood. I hadn't set foot in the camp since August and was curious of what I was coming back _to._ After Percy had made the gods swear (which they did NOT like) to take responsibility in claiming all their children they had doubled the size of camp and Grover was still constantly sending satyrs out to collect more from all over the world. _With all these kids it sure said a lot about the gods, _I thought.

With all these new campers, the camp would definitely feel different. Not to mention _look_ different with the new cabins that had been built. This all had been a huge relief to the Hermes cabin whose inhabitants would usually squish together like one big unhappy family.

One thing was for sure though, _things had changed, _and with things constantly going array in my life, I did not take well to change.

We walked down the empty path into the camp, but stopped when we heard multiple voices shouting faintly at something to…_heel?_

It was coming from our left on the other side of the patch of Redwood trees that blocked our view. It turned out that it was farther away than I thought and we found ourselves in the training area—except no one was training. Everyone formed a circle with their eyes and weapons trained on _something._

As we got closer we saw that the something was…Mrs. O'Leary? _Great, who had been stupid enough to bother her this time?_

I looked at the fifty, maybe sixty various campers who had their weapons drawn. I realized I couldn't spot a single familiar face. _With no senior campers around these newbies had not only been dumb enough to bother her but also to point their weapons at her which means you're basically asking for it. _I hoped that none of these kids where Athena's, that would be disappointing.

"Should we just kill it?" I heard someone ask, causing my anger to rise.

"No, we need to get it in its cage!" _They've been putting her in a cage?!_

"No, Chiron said we weren't allowed to do that and it should be free to roam the camp."

"But it would be self-defense on our part if that _thing_ is TRYING TO KILL US!"

Others spoke up to agree with the last comment and I rolled my eyes, _wimps. _I whistled loud enough for everyone to hear and now all eyes were on me, including Mrs. O'Leary's.

"Hiya girl," Thalia said beside me. I gestured for the hellhound to come on over and a second later I was tackled to the ground and greeted with a slobbery lick. Soon enough Thalia was pulled down too. We laughed, hugged her, patted her on the back, but it still didn't stop the euphoria that seemed to be going on inside her. _They better have been treating her good or they would have to face me, Thalia, and Percy, which never ends pretty._

"So, the beast is yours then, huh? You either keep that thing caged, where it _belongs,_ or we'll go to the camp leader and Chiron will be forced to get rid of the thing. Understand?"

I stood up to see a well- muscled boy of…sixteen, with a tattoo of two crossed swords on his upper arm—Ares kid. He gave me a cold look and from the faces of the rest of the campers; it looked like they agreed with him. But none of that irritated me more than the fact that this guy looked like he _thought _he was in charge.

"No, _Mrs. O'Leary_ is not ours, she's my boyfriend's."

"Boyfriend? What kind of guy in his right mind has a hellhound as a _pet_?"

"First of all he is never in his right mind and, second, who the hell do you think you are?" said Thalia who was also standing now. It was evident by his reaction that he was not used to being addressed like this.

He gave us a hard look, "Well it looks like the two of you haven't been around long enough to understand how this camp is run so I'll excuse the rudeness this one time," and answered prideful, "Anthony Bryn, Son of Ares, second-in-command for the Ares cabin, and temporary camp leader till the actual one returns," then gave us a look that said 'beat that', "who are you?" _This will be fun!_

"Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, head counselor of the Athena cabin, _actual _co-camp leader, and official architect of Olympus."

"Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, head counselor of the Zeus and Artemis cabin, first lieutenant to Lady Artemis, and leader of the Hunters."

"Now may I ask why they made you temporary camp counselor and not a senior camper?" All of the camper's eyes had widened, but the best part was the fact that Anthony had considerably paled.

"I…um, w-well there aren't any senior campers here at the moment, they were all given quests to help the damage caused by the war, but they should arrive back today at 3:00 pm."

This made sense because after Kronos was defeated, monsters around the world had not taken the news very well and were constantly taking out their frustrations on unsuspecting mortals. Since then, it seemed that Chiron was continuously organizing raids to diminish the monster threats and patch-up the damage caused.

I looked at my watch—1:39, the senior campers would be back soon. With that Thalia and I walked away from the gaping campers and toward the armory. I hadn't been able to practice my sword fighting in the past few months and wanted to get as much practice in if I were to go up against Seaweed Brain tomorrow; _not that I needed it, of course._

After ripping apart a few training dummies, Thalia and I started to circle each other. Fighting against Thalia is always interesting, to this day we still don't exactly know who is the better swordsman. I, being a daughter of Athena, am just a little better at strategizing then she is. While Thalia, being a hunter, has a bit more speed and agility on her side then I do. Overall, our strengths even out our weaknesses and make it a balanced competition. That being said, our duels usually go on till we both get worn out and with our stamina that can be a very long, long time.

After the first five minutes of slashes, lunges, faints, and deflecting; the newer campers started to take notice and watched. We've been told by others in the past that we make quite the spectacle and from the sidelines we look like a whirlwind of movements. This makes sense because over the years we've upped our skills together. It was actually Thalia who taught me how to fight, sometimes with the help of Luke, back during the days we were on the run. I caught on quickly and since then we'd find time to have a duel whenever we could. Over the years we've become accustomed to each other's fighting style and now we're almost able to predict the other's next move, which only makes it more fun and challenging.

There was now a full circle of bystanders trying to catch our every move. I realized that we must have been going on for a while because I started to notice some senior campers in the crowd.

Unfortunately, Thalia got called away by Chiron who wanted to talk to her about the possibility of the hunters' staying at camp while Artemis was busy at Olympus. Next thing I know there is a line of people who want to duel me. All of them were newer campers who've never went up against me before, but most were guys my age who wanted to try and impress me with their so-called 'skill'. However, they were sadly disappointed after I started defeating them in under a minute.

Just when I was about to make my move to finish off my seventh opponent of the day, a sword from another person blocked it. Acting on reflexes I slashed and it quickly turned into a new fight.

Because of the speed of this new opponent I was forced to keep my focus on their sword and wasn't able to get a good look at their face. But whoever this was, they were good—but I was better. Or so I hoped.

The next move surprised me as their sword twisted in mine, yanking it out of my hand and into theirs. I felt the side of one blade gently rest against the back of my neck while the tip of the other pointed to the base of my collarbones.

Silence fell over the crowd as my stormy grey eyes slowly meet sea green. I scowled as a goofy grin spread on my opponents face. But I couldn't help but smile against his lips as they crashed down on mine.

Catcalls and wolf- whistles filled the air and before he completely pulled away from me he leaned toward my ear and whispered, "Meet me on the pier at 6:00."

"Sure, Seaweed Brain," I breathed back. He smiled and gave me one last quick kiss before heading away.

I watched as he disappeared from sight. I was now positively beaming at the spot where he had stood and there was no doubt that from the snickers I was getting from the audience, that they were finding my comical look very amusing.

"So if we win do we also get a kiss?" Some guy in Apollo yelled. _That_ broke me out of my ravine.

In attempt to preserve the last of my dignity I walked away.

By 6:00 I was attempting to walk calmly toward the pier when I actually wanted to sprint. When I finally got there, however, I discovered my boyfriend of four months to be sprawled fast asleep across the end of the pier, drooling into his shirt.

I chuckled and took out a water bottle from my bag. Feeling no sense of future regret, I ruthlessly poured the ice cool liquid over his unsuspecting, puppy dog- looking face.

It worked automatically, like someone had pushed an eject button on him as he swiftly scrabbled up looking for the source.

"Sorry," I said innocently, _yah right._

Percy whirled around and squinted at me through his water- ridden eyelashes. He grinned and the next thing that came out of his mouth made me want to smack him. "Happy to see me?"

I rolled my eyes but stopped as my eyes became glued to his white t-shirt, now see-through from the water. _He really did look great._ I wasn't really the type to 'check out' guys, but I guess the fact the Percy was my boyfriend more than explained my action, and allowed me the right to do so.

"Like what you see?"

I blushed, _was he asking to get hurt? _At this point he was trying to look smug. Empathize on _trying, _in reality he was miraculously failing and instead looked more like his 'attempting- math- look'. Not being able to hold myself back any longer, I bombarded him with a rib- breaking hug.

"So you _are_ happy to see me?" I elbowed him.

"Shut up." I felt his body quake with laughter.

"Come on, let's eat," he said pointing toward a picnic basket at the end of the pier. I opened it to find—blue. Blue sandwiches and blue beverages, it was typical Percy. I took a bite of one sandwich and immediately feel in love with it.

"Tell your mom her food is amazing."

"How do you know that I didn't make it?"

I snorted, "Since when do you cook?"

"Since last year when I learned how to use the toaster."

"You didn't know how to use the toaster? How are you even able to get up in the morning without breaking any bones? My poor Seaweed Brain."

"Ha Ha, next topic please"

She thought for a moment, "How is it going at your school? Is the Second Titan War any match for high school?"

"Well, math in fact does bore me to _death,_ so does science, English, and history. On the upside though, I was made captain of the swimming team and quarterback for the football team." Demigod training gave us a major advantage in sports. (So did being the son of Poseidon, which made being on the swim team 100% cheating)

"The swimming _and _football team? And just when I thought your ego couldn't get any bigger."

He nudged me lightly, but then wrapped his arm around the tops of my shoulders. I leaned into him and we continued talking till the sun had completely set. By the time he walked me back to my cabin I was already eagerly waiting for the next day so we could spend it together.

Percy kissed me good night and I felt like I was in total bliss. Although that feeling of bliss was also accompanied by a sharp throbbing in my gut, telling me something was about to go wrong. You see, for me happiness never seems to last long, as if the Gods were never willing to give me a much needed break. Nonetheless, I stupidly chose to ignore it and the next morning I paid the price.

When I awoke, Chiron was already waiting patiently by my bedside to personally tell me the news of Percy's disappearance. At first I acted out of denial. I passed it off as a joke or misunderstanding, insisting to check every cabin, nook, and cranny. When that didn't work I called his mother to see if he went back home, I even dipped my head in the lake a few times to check if he decided to go for a swim.

Then I ran out of options. I must admit I acted somewhat deranged after that. In recap I also think that I must have frightened some of the new campers by my running around the grounds and screaming 'Percy' over and over again. In the end, there was no sign of the green- eyed and raven- haired boy.

When the truth finally hit me I simply leaned back and slumped against the nearest tree. I didn't know what to do and I, daughter of Athena, _always_ knew what to do.

I was lost.

_**End of Flashback**_

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I tried taking deep breaths to fall asleep, hoping Thalia wouldn't notice.

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We woke up and were fortunate to find that the herd had moved on.

When we got to the airport, however, we weren't very lucky.

"What do you mean the flight has been canceled? We need to get to San Francisco _today_!" I shrieked at the woman behind the information desk who looked ready to call security on me.

"Miss, like I said before there is nothing I can do, all flights have been canceled due to the winter storms in the area; we will of course give you a full refund for—"

"You think I give a damn about the money? _We need a flight to San Francisco now!"_

The woman looked like she had just about enough of me, "_Miss,_ no one is flying in this weather so if you do not lower your tone I will have security show you out."

"But—" Thalia dragged me away from the counter with one hand over my mouth.

"No buts, there isn't any use in arguing with someone when they _can't _give in. Now let's go back to the van and sort this out there." I muttered in agreement and we climbed back into the car.

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"Now let's think about our other options, if there are none then we'll just wait till the storm clears."

"I don't think that Zeus has any intention of stopping the storms anytime soon, it may be the Gods way of trying to delay our arrival at the Roman camp if you think about it," _curse Hera_, "Plus, it not safe traveling by land with Gaia getting stronger, so no trains or driving there."

"We could steal a boat and go by sea."

"No, Thals think about it does either of us actually know how to sail?"

"I thought you and Percy sailed through the Sea of Monsters together?"

"I was with Percy, he did all the sailing," _And watched out for me, saving my life a few times, _I thought, "what about Shadow travel? Nico could help us with it."

"No, I haven't been able to get in contact with Nico in the past week. But I guess it's usual for him being Death Breath, the dark and creep heir of Hades, and all that."

We both got quiet, deep in thought.

Two minutes later I heard something thump against the very back row of seats. _Something is in the van with us. _I took out my dagger and looked at Thalia. She had heard it too and had drawn a sword from her pack.

We climbed over to the third row of seats and peeked over. At the very back of the van was a wool blanket covering its floor and it was _moving. _I held my dagger, ready to stab anything at the moment's notice.

Thalia reached down and pulled the blanket to reveal…

"_What!" _

"Hey."

"_Rachel?" _I looked from red hair to goat legs, "_Grover?"_

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"What the Hades do you think you're doing here?"

Grover whimpered away from my somewhat sharp tone and curled into a ball, his whole body vibrating erratically. Rachel sighed pityingly at the pathetic sight and faced me. "Yesterday, Grover and I overheard you two taking about getting Percy back and we figured that we're his friends too, so we decided—"

"_She_ figured, _she_ decided, I had no part in this!" Grover burst out with eyes pleading for mercy.

After receiving three bullet- proof glares, Grover cowered back in his sad, smelly little corner. I felt for him, I really did. In the past, I've been told that Rachel's glares forces you to flinch, Thalia's make you want to crawl under a blanket, and mine causes you to pray to the fates that there's a spot in Elysium with your name on it. Basically, we created and perfected the saying: _if looks could kill…_

"Look guys, we know we should have talked to you before hitching a ride, but we also knew you'd say no. We're Percy's friends too, we want to help."

"We have our reasons for saying no. Neither of you are demigods. It doesn't matter whether you _want _to help, how _can _you help?"

Rachel smirked smugly, "What if I told you I could get you to San Francisco?"

**THANKS to all those who have reviewed for my previous chapters!**

**-I'm SO sorry that it has taken so long for me to update, and I promise that the posting of my future chapters will become more daily and sooner.**

**PLEASE REVIEW! ANY FEEDBACK IS WELCOME!**

**P.S. I edited my first and second chapters because I realized all of the mistakes I made with the POVs—thanks to ****.90**,** who pointed that out. **

**(I kept switching from first person to third person.)**


	4. Chapter 4 Praying While Skydiving

**Thank you all for being so patient with me! I promise that from now on I'll be posting at least one chapter every week. **

**-It may not seem like a lot, but every chapter has a word range of about 3,500 to 5,000 words, so it takes a while to write. PLUS, I'm also starting a new story (not for PJ) and working on some one-shots (also not for PJ).**

**Anyway—I LOVE THE REVIEWS AND ALSO IF THERE ARE ANY BETA READERS OUT THERE THAT WANT TO HELP EDIT THIS—**_**PLEASE DO**_

_**Annabeth's POV**_

"We should be close…"

"Are you sure this will work?" I asked for the umpteenth time.

"Of course—here it is!"Rachel declared triumphantly while pointing toward a door that read 'BREAK ROOM', "Now do you want to do it or shall I?"

"I'll do it"

Rachel nodded in agreement. "I'll keep watch and tell you if someone's coming."

I put on my cap and stepped into the room. Inside were two flight attendants. One was at the small circular table sipping coffee and reading a magazine, while the other was at the counter dipping a tea bag into her mug of hot water. _Perfect._

I slipped out a small vial from my jean pocket. In it, were two dosages of the liquid laxatives that we had taken out of the darts earlier. I quickly poured half of the vial in each of the women's drinks and waited for them to swallow.

Soon enough the first attendant slumped forward, unconscious. The second fell back, but I ran forward to catch her before she hit the ground. After setting the woman gently on the ground, I went back out to find Rachel talking animatedly to a janitor.

"_NO, _I'm sorry sir, but you cannot go in there. There has been, um, a—a gas leak and that room is—"

She was cut off as the man collapsed after I had poked him with a dart. I took off my cap and Rachel let out a frustrated sigh.

"I was handling it," she insisted.

"No time for that, now where's Thalia and Grover?"

"_Hello_, pilot Underwood at your service! " I turned to see Thalia and Grover walking up to us; Grover wearing a pilot's uniform.

"Grover found a pilot in the restroom and knocked him out to get the uniform, you?"

"I knocked out two flight attendants both in uniforms, in there." I replied pointing towards the door.

"Only two? There's three of us."

"I'll just follow you three under my cap, and you and Rachel can take the flight attendant uniforms."

The four of us nodded. Thalia and Rachel went to change into the uniforms while Grover and I kept watch. Five minutes later, we all walked down the hallway until we came to a stop at a guarded door. I, being invisible simply continued to walk forward while the other three clipped off the ID cards that came with their uniform. Before the guard was able to notice that their faces looked nothing like the ones on the ID cards, Thalia bended the mist to convince the guard to let them through. Once through, they started to search.

_And what were we searching for, you might ask…well, just a HUGE jumbo jet that just happened to belong to Rachel, or more like Rachel's dad. _

However, we instantly spotted it (the 'giveaway' was the word 'Dare' written in red jumbo sized letters along the length of the plane). When we got there, there were already people getting it ready for takeoff. Rachel had informed us that her father was planning a business trip somewhere and was going to use the jet today, in about an hour. That meant it would be fully fueled and ready to fly.

That's where our plan came in. We were going to steal it. Technically, it wasn't stealing because we had Rachel's permission and she was a Dare. So I like to think of it as _borrowing._

Anyways, while Rachel began bribing the pilot to 'look the other way', the three of us stayed out of sight. When Rachel came back smiling, I restrained my own smile that tried to tug free. We were still demigods and every possible thing that could go wrong probably would go wrong.

The four of us boarded the plane and Rachel took the controls. Apparently after I had saved her butt during the war from an out of control helicopter, Rachel had felt a bit jealousy that I knew how to pilot one and she didn't. So since the war she had begun taking flying lessons. Now, these lessons would be put to the test.

When I heard the sound of the engine turn on, I leaned back in my seat. Soon we'd be in San Francisco. _That_ thought couldn't stop the stop a smile from appearing on my face.

Before I knew it I was fast asleep.

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_**Flashback/ Dream**_

It was six days since Percy's disappearance and no luck. The only thing that had shown up even remotely related was my dream sent from Hera that was basically a finger pointing straight at a boy with one shoe. Who turned out to be Jason Grace, the amnesiac son of Zeus. _Well, thank you very, very much for the dream, Lady Hera—but your point?_

The three of them—Jason, Piper, and Leo—had left about three days ago on their quest to free Queen Venom. Meanwhile, I had been traveling with the hunters of Artemis, trying to help the search as much as I could.

We also had Tyson, Nico, and Grover searching in areas too. I had to admit that travelling with Thalia was helpful in keeping me calm, but after just two days with them I had concluded that five search parties were better than four, and left to search on my own

However, I, being only one person couldn't really be called a search 'party'. By forgetting that little fact of having no one else to back me up, caused me to be a little risk taking and careless. (Something that, if it were possible, would definitely cause my mother a heart attack if she heard)

Overall, today had been pretty much a wreck. I had gone to two places that were known for their monster population in New Jersey. One location had telkhines while the other had empousa. Both had not been very accepting toward Kronos's defeat and the second they saw me they became hostile. Thankfully I was able to get out alive; however, my day did not end there.

For the past two miles I've had a pack of hell hounds on my tail, _Shit. _Not to mention the fact that one empousa had gotten a pretty good swipe at me and I was currently clutching the side of my stomach to avoid bleeding out. Plus, I had also tripped a while back and my left shoulder was stinging in pain from being dislocated. I had finished the last of my supply of ambrosia and nectar, so I was desperately in need of some medicine.

In addition, I looked like hell. I was covered in mud, grim, blood, and cloths could now be officially called rags and my skin was dotted with cuts and bruises. _Lovely picture, eh?_

Anyways, I had finally made it to half- blood hill and was now running up, not even daring to look behind me. _Keep running, just keep running, and—_I made it past the border! I was finally safe—then an arrow whizzed past me—_spoke too soon._

_What now? _I scrambled behind the closest bush and fumbled for my knife on my belt strap.

"_Annabeth?" _I knew that voice.

I peeked out from behind the bush and squinted through the darkness. "Malcolm?"

The figure moved toward me and I stood up to face the grinning form of my half- brother. "Hey, sis, sorry about the arrow, I'm on guard duty tonight." He lit the torch near us and his face fell at the sight of me.

"I'm kind of in need of some medicine at the moment."

"Yeah, I can tell," his eyes scrunched up in concern, "here, lean on me."

He guided me down the path toward camp, but then turned left. "Malcolm, where are we going? The infirmary is the other way."

"I know, but the Apollo campers that were _supposed _to take the night shift at the infirmary tonight are still at the campfire. They didn't think there'd be any emergencies tonight." _Are the fates ever on my side? No. Did I do something to make them hate me? No. So why do I never have any luck? I don't know. _

"Yeah, well thanks to them I might die of blood lost if we don't get their soon."

"Stop it," he said forcefully, "you'll be fine." Although I could tell he was saying it to convince himself more than me. _Oh hope, do I get any? No._

The route curved and we caught sight of the amphitheater. There were five figures—all male—seated around the fire. It was well past curfew so I guessed these were a mix of campers that either had guard duty or the night shift at the infirmary.

But were they at their posts, doing their jobs? No.

I was bleeding to death. Percy was missing. Gaia was rising. Hell was on the loose. They were laughing and having a 'oh- so' good time.

If I die tonight I swear to be granted rebirth just so I can come back from Hell and strangle them. Or stab them. Or feed them to Cerberus. (Three- headed dog that loves shiny red bouncy balls and swallowing humans whole) Or—

"Will!" Malcolm called out, "Annabeth needs healing." _Or I could just kill them after they cure me._

One figure that I vaguely recognized as Will Solace came running up to greet us. "Hey, nice to see you back Annab—"His smile was wiped clean off his face as he took in my shape. Swiveling around, he yelled to one of the others, "Josh! Get the medical kit from the infirmary! Hurry!"

One of the other figures, she assumed was Josh, scrambled up and sprinted away to get the supplies. Will helped Malcolm carry me into the amphitheater.

"Lay her down here," commanded Will, gesturing to one of the benches. "By the looks of her wounds we don't have enough time to carry her to the infirmary."

"Annabeth?" The other three campers were now standing, their eyes widened in shock. I squinted at the face that had spoken.

"Jake?" Jake nodded and I noted that I didn't recognize the other two. However, I didn't stop to dwell on this, considering my entire body was undeniably _throbbing _in pain at the moment.

Fortunately, Josh returned only moments after his departure and Will began dumping out the contents of the kit. He scanned my wounds once more then inquired, "Is there a particular spot you want me to heal first?" _Well the stinging in my shoulder had become insanely irritating._

"My left shoulder…it's dislocated." Will nodded.

"Sit up and give me your left arm."

I did what I was told, but when I pulled my left arm away from my stomach Will's eyebrows shot up into his hairline. The entire time I had been using that arm to clutch onto deep gash and clot the bleeding. It also had previously hid the extent of the wound that I had endured.

"We need to fix that up first."

"No, you can quickly fix my shoulder, now. There hasn't been much blood loss. "But he was already rummaging through the supplies.

"Josh, can you fix her shoulder, while I prepare the gauge."

The boy Josh, who she now assumed was one of the new Apollo campers, stepped forward, "This is going to hurt," he warned while taking my arm. I nodded.

I heard my own sharp intake of breath as he swiftly pulled back on my arm. With a 'crack' it snapped back into place. "Okay?" I nodded.

"Good. Now lay back down so I can patch up that gash."

I lay down and he pulled my shirt up halfway to get a better look at the wound. I felt him place gauge on my stomach, but as he added pressure I gasped and made him pull back.

"Annabeth, I know it hurts but—"

"No n-not that…it's my ribs…I-I think one of them is broken," I croaked. I had mistaken the ache for emitting from my cut. But now, with the danger behind me, I withstood the full force of pain. The agony began seeping into my mind, leaving me breathless and clouding my thoughts. _The sensation was like an elephant sitting on my stomach, _I mused.

His fingers swept over my ribcage, randomly applying pressure with his whole palm, this time gently. "One rib is definitely broken and another may be fractured."

"Jeez, Annie, what were you up to today?" inquired Malcolm.

"_Don't call me Annie," _I snarled, then added a bit nicer, "I hate that name."

"I know." I glared. _Oh, loving hate._

After be finished with the gauge and said a chant to Apollo, he handed me ambrosia squares and some nectar. My body still stung here and there, but other than that I simply felt numb. _The elephant was getting off!_

Malcolm handed me a bottle of water and I sat up. "Better?" he asked. I nodded.

"By the way I'm Joshua Hicks, son of Apollo," said the boy who had fixed my shoulder. I regarded his appearance. He was sandy haired with blue eyes, like Luke I thought bitterly. However, both the shades of hair and eyes were off. I couldn't really tell much of his personality by his appearance, but one thing I was sure of was that I had never seen this camper before. Or the two others either.

"Are you new, here?"

"Yep, I got here about a month ago," he turned toward the other unidentified two, "So did they." Other than coming back to camp for a day and a half (the day of Percy's disappearance), I hadn't seen the camp since August. Much less meet any of the new campers that had arrived in the past three and half months.

"Kyle Reyes, son of Hephaestus," another spoke up. His almost chiseled face was prominent and I could easily tell that his hands were rough and calloused.

I waited for the other camper to introduce himself. Then I noticed he looked reluctant to speak to me. He was well muscled and gazed at me with impassive brown eyes. "Parker Malone, son of Ares," he bit out a little rudely.

I brushed it aside, but made a mental note to observe the guy cautiously. "I'm Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena."

"So how long have you been here?" asked Kyle.

"About nine years," I replied breezily.

"Nine! You must have been—"

"Seven years old at the time."

Kyle and Josh gaped like fish out of water. Parker looked bored, _but I could have sworn I saw a flicker of jealousy in his eyes._ "Annabeth, has actually been here the longest out of everyone," stated Jake, cutting in. It was true, all the campers that had resided here when I arrived, and had survived, had left and built their own lives away from camp.

I remembered that I promised to inform Chiron the moment that I got back so I stood. Malcolm was at my side in an instant. "I'll help you get back to the cabin."

"No, I need to talk to Chiron first."

"Ok, I go get him for you."

"No!" cried Jake, "If you bring him here, he'll know that none of us were at our posts."

I reminded myself of my anger from before, "Well, why weren't you?"

"Because it's our first time on guard duty, so Will and Jake decided to teach us the ropes," explained Josh.

"You're teaching them to slack off?" I whispered dangerously to Will. Will raised his arms in surrender.

Josh answer for him. "It's not their fault. There are rarely any emergencies like tonight and it's not like we would get caught. When you think about it there's only three people that could bust us, since it's after curfew: Chiron, who is currently snoring into his sheets; Mr, D, who does even care enough to remember our names, much less uphold the rules; and the camp leader, who is currently on some top secret quest." Jake and Will fidgeted.

I informed him sweetly, "I'm the camp leader and as you can see I'm back from my quest."

"Oh"

After that they kept quiet as Malcolm left to wake Chiron. Soon enough they were back and Chiron strode over to greet me.

"Annabeth, my dear, it's good to see you back here safe,"_ With no results, I couldn't say the same for me, _"Did you find anything at the two locations I gave you?"

"No, nothing," I reported sadly, "only some telkhines and empousa." I recounted the areas that I had searched with the Hunters and gave locations of each of the four other search parties spread over the US.

When I was done Chiron seemed satisfied and dismissed me, "Even considering the results, you've still done well. Now get some rest, we have a big day tomorrow."

I felt my eyebrows scrunch in confusion, "Is there something important tomorrow?" Chiron eyed me hesitantly.

"Yes, we've gotten troubling reports from nature spirits of a growing monster colony in one of the forests off the shore of New Jersey. There is a variety of species included in the colony, such as Cyclops and dracaena. They haven't grown very large yet, but we still want to eliminate the threat before they do. Tomorrow more than half of the campers will be leaving to do so."

"Okay I understand that, but why would I have to rest for the raid? Tomorrow I plan to leave again and continue to search."

He looked warily at me, "Tomorrow you are needed to take part in the raid. As camp leader and head strategist you are in charge of leading the camp to the colony. On the way there you will have plenty of time to formulate a plan on—"

"Chiron I can't! If I help with the raid tomorrow then I waste a day of without searching! It has already been six days and who knows how much danger he's in or how much time he has left—every _minute _counts."

"There are four search parties currently out there, Annabeth, if it's possible to find him, we will."

"What do you mean 'if it's possible'," I quoted quietly. The other six demigods listened intently, but didn't dare to speak.

"Over the centuries I have witnessed many heroes come and go, my dear. At some point you may have to face the possibility of him not returning." His tone was wistful and full of pity, pity that I did _not _want.

"He is _not_ dead, Chiron," I stated firmly.

"How can you know that for sure?"

"When I was missing he continued to look for me because he knew that I'd do the same for him." I looked Chiron straight in the eye. "For once in his life, the Seaweed Brain was right."

_**End of Flashback/ Dream**_

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I woke after being haphazardly thrown out of my seat.

The plane was shaking uncontrollably and felt like we were on a downward plunge. Looking out one of the passenger windows it was impossible to miss the fact that half of one of the wings was missing. The jagged scorch marks said it all—Zeus. _Or should I say Hera playing her 'I'm- your- wife' card._

But there wasn't any time to curse.

When I turned my attention to sight in front of me I noticed a few things. One, everyone was screaming. Two, Rachel was desperately trying to handle the controls. Three, Thalia was pulling out parachutes. Four, Grover was hyperventilating in the corner. And I…well; I was watching the dreaded scene unfold.

Noticing that I was awake, Thalia shoved a parachute in my arms. "Put that on and hurry. Right now we are flying over the San Francisco Bay and thanks to my loving father that is where this plane is landing. We have no choice but to jump."

"No!" wailed Grover who looked close to tears. "I can't jump off a plane! I'll end up—"

"Grover! We have no chose," yelled Rachel from the control room, "I can't keep the plane in the air any longer, if don't jump you will _die."_

"Are we still high enough to jump?"

Rachel nodded. "We're on a downward slope, but we still have enough height that we can safely eject the parachutes while jumping," then added, "_but that's not going to be the case in a few moments so we need to jump now!"_

"Okay Rachel, since you already have your parachute on you can go first. Just everyone remember that after you jump count to three then pull the string to eject the parachute. Once you're in the water take the straps off and swim to shore. Got it?"

Everyone nodded. Grover whimpered. Rachel jumped. Thalia jumped. Grover froze.

"Grover you need to jump! Now!" The noise of the failing engine drowned my voice, but I knew he could hear me. He continued to whimper. I was sorry for what I was about to do, I really was. But Percy was already missing, so Grover was not going to die on my watch.

I shoved one of my best friends out of a plane. He screamed. And I watched him fall.

Fortunately I saw his parachute bloom out above him moments later. Then, I jumped.

One…

Cold, that was the first thing I felt jumping out. The icy air smacked away all my other senses. None of us were wearing proper skydiving gear, including goggles. So basically, it felt cold, it smelled cold, it tasted cold, and my eyes stung from the cold.

Two…

I felt weightless in the free fall and the sensation completely deprived me of breath. It was like I couldn't control my body very well. The idea that there was nothing around me to touch was also overwhelming. Air at that moment surrounded me, there was _nothing _but air. This was entirely Zeus's territory, meaning my life was literally in the palm of his hand at the moment. So I prayed to him and every God/ Goddess that would listen that even though my action may not be able to be described as safe, I did mean well for Olympus.

Three…

I ejected the parachute and my downward descend slowed, allowing me to look around. I realized that we were far from shore and looking down on the heads of the other three, I could tell they knew this to. Soon enough I reached the water. I unstrapped myself from the parachute and swam over to where the other three had grouped up.

The water, unfortunately, was just as icy as the air had been, causing me to chatter my teeth unconsciously. Nonetheless, having Percy constantly spray me with chilly water on daily basis had prepared me for this moment.

"Annabeth, we're going to have to swim the rest of the," Thalia informed me.

We started swimming but even after only a few moments of being in the water I could tell everyone was beginning to feel numb from the cold.

Then I got an idea. I didn't know if it would work, but it was worth a try. _Lord Poseidon, please help us. We have no intentions of destroying hope of union between the Greeks and Romans. All we want is to secure the safety of Percy. I'm a daughter of Athena, you may not care for me, I understand. So don't do this for me, do it for Percy. He is your son; I know you care for him. So please help us._

Suddenly, a very large wave began to propel us forward. _Thank you, Lord Poseidon. _It set us down gently on the shore and we collapsed, deprived of energy. Then Rachel's phone, which had remained intact because of its waterproof case, rang. She picked it up and put it on speaker.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Rachel this is your father."

"Dad? Why are you calling?"

"I'm calling to ask, where is the jet?"

The four looked up to the horizon where the Dare family jet was gradually sinking to the bottom of the San Francisco Bay.

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